Re: Looking for advice about going into trucking

Assuming you will want to get home, concentrate on the trucking companies in
your local phone book or listed in the nearest large city. Call each one of
them and ask for Safety Dept or Risk Management Dept. Don't tell the
receptionist you are calling to ask someone about driving jobs. Ask Sefty
Dept if they hire students with new CDLs and no experience. If they do
hire, which schools do they recognize and hire students from.

I think you are placing too much emphasis on PTDI. Coke will tell you their
formula is the key to all future happiness, same for Pepsi, everybody else
really doesn't care much for or against Coke and Pepsi, but their
advertisement has to make you believe that you will never have any future
happiness if you don't use their product. Even if PTDI is the be all and
end all in CDL schools your concern is meeting the requirements for the very
few companies you think are good places to work. It won't help you at all
if Bob & Fred Trucking pay $0.40 per mile, and as much home time you want if
they don't acept students from the CDL school you go to.

You do not have to start with a bottom of the barrel company before you can
work at a better company. You will reduce your chance for working at a good
company *by* working for a junk company. Not only are you less likely to
complete some reasonable work period and earn a good reference from a
company that already expects you will abandon the truck because this is the
94th time this month they've lied to you, but you will seem a bit
questionable to the good company if the bad company is your reference. If I
was hiring a chef and his only experience was McDonalds would I give him the
same consideration as another applicant with the same experience at a small
non-chain restaurant?

You can train a paralyzed chimp to drive a truck and most schools can train
the mentally ill to drive a truck in 3 weeks or less. Unlike every other
job you may have known about, in this industry it's better to find an
employer first, most need drivers, and then jump through the hoops they
require to get hired.

If all of this seems too hard or you really have to have the job ASAP just
go to Schneider. They are probably the best at training new drivers, they
may not be everyones' cup of tea but they are less likley than most to just
take advantage of you for their own amusement. They are located almost
everywhere and they drive almost everywhere.

Scott


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